THE government鈥檚 move to establish a system of rewarding compliant taxpayers, as the chair of the National Board of Revenue said at a progrmame in Dhaka on October 8, appears to be awkward for its being skewed. It appears so because when the revenue board should widen the income tax coverage, simplify the tax payment process, end corruption and irregularities in income tax management and hold to account the individuals and entities that do not pay income taxes in breach of the relevant laws, the government鈥檚 plan to reward the people that comply with tax payment legislation appears to be a populist move that would, ultimately, bring about no good and make no improvement in the poor state of the income tax regime. The chair of the revenue board has said that the tax burden on 鈥榗ompliant taxpayers鈥� always increases whilst 鈥榥on-compliant taxpayers鈥� remain outside the system, noting that the board is trying to correct the imbalance. The board forgets that it is not about correcting 鈥榠mbalance鈥� but about making the people or entities not paying income taxes pay the taxes and be compliant.
The revenue board chair has also spoken of the government going digital to ensure transparency in the tax regime so that information cannot be twisted or modified for unlawful or illegal gains. This is a positive step forward to strengthen tax management. But the revenue board chair has also spoken of having received complaints of inflated valuation and manipulation, saying that mis-invoicing and false declaration would not be tolerated and sounding a warning for tax officials against unlawful collection through coercion or any other informal means. This proposition may be true that some individuals or entities may try to evade paying taxes by employing various means. The remarks of the revenue board chair also suggest that corruption and irregularities continue to infest the tax administration. But the board should not forget that public officials working with the board are equally responsible for such corruption and irregularities that the revenue board should spend its energy on ending the menace. Sounding warnings would hardly get the work done if punitive measures were not taken against errant tax officials. Bangladesh鈥檚 ratio of tax to gross domestic product is reported to have declined to 6.56 per cent in the 2025 financial year, down from 7.2 per cent in the 2024 financial year. The 2025 OECD report, Revenue Statistics in Asia and the Pacific, shows that Bangladesh鈥檚 revenue collection was far below the regional average of 19.6 per cent of gross domestic product.
The government should, therefore, stay off populist ideas and attend to issues that would meaningfully improve the tax administration.